Meg

Remember this little beastie?
You can follow the current adventures of Meg as she gets trained and begins trialing at
http://www.sheepdog.com/sheepdog_news/

Catching Up, again...

It seems like every time i post i'm "catching up", but here goes again. Life stays pretty busy, just the way i like it, and i'm tending to just do quick posts on Facebook rather than be good about the blog. So, if you'd like more up-to-date posts, you'll probably have to join FB and keep up there. There are also many pictures on there from trips and trials to new and old dogs. I will try to keep the blog updated during the upcoming fall trial season. I laid out the calendar the other day and from the beginning of the Finals in mid-September to Thanksgiving, there is a fairly local trial every weekend but one. I don't think we'll hit every single one of those, but probably will make most of them. The dogs are running so well, i hate to miss anything!

So, back to catching up. I left on July 15th for a nearly monthlong trip of training and trialing. First i went to Joni Swanke's in Bowman, ND for almost 2 weeks of training and working the dogs. It was amazing, wide open spaces with wonderful sheep all around. I can't even begin to describe it all but it was great fun and i feel very fortunate to have been able to do it. New friends, new experiences, new training methods and things to think on, it was more than i could have hoped for.

After leaving ND, we went to the Upper Midwest Stockdog Challenge trial in Jordan, MN. Bill ran especially well, having gained a lot of experience and confidence from his ND days. Zac was a little off his game on the outrun, i think as he was adjusting to some things i was doing differently, and ran out a bit tight both days. But both dogs did very well. Bill won his 1st Open trial on the 1st go (and gaining enough points to qualify for the USBCHA Open Finals on the last day of qualifying), and was 4th the second. Zac was 4th on the first go. While on the trip, i'd started thinking it was time to look for a good retirement home for Jet, and an excellent home came up, so i let her go. It was terribly difficult to get in the truck and leave, but i know she's in good hands and is happy to be working again.

From MN, we traveled on to the Kingston SDT at Grass Creek Park in Kingston, Ontario. It's a wonderful trial that i'd attended several years ago, and had been trying to return to since. It's not a huge course but it's tricky and the sheep can be quite difficult. I was thrilled with how both dogs ran again, full of confidence and poise, and listening like champs. In the first round, i ran both dogs very near the beginning of the order (i had entered Jet and she would have been at the end had i run her). That ended up being bad for me as i had a terrible time in the shedding ring with both dogs, not completing the shed or being able to attempt the pen. I think with more time to watch and take notes between my runs, that perhaps i could have done a better job with the later run, but that's how it goes sometimes. Both dogs ended up with scores of 60, quite good comparatively speaking, for just the outrun, lift, fetch, drive. I loved how both dogs felt to handle, smooth and easy. Both ran extremely well again in the second round. Bill ran very late in the day, at a time when the sheep simply were not penning, and still managed to pull out a 69 score with no pen or shed. Not enough to get to the Final round (top 15 combined scores) but really a stellar job on his part. Zac ran at a better time of day and laid down a nice run for a score of 85, good for 11th place and a spot in the Finals.

We ran 8th in the double lift final and i couldn't have been happier with or more proud of Zac. He ran out beautifully and his turnback was all i could have asked for, clean and sharp. Fetches were good, with him holding the second lot to their line, rather than letting them pull offline to the first group. The drive was just what i wanted - straight lines, tight turns, all 20 sheep through both panels, though with some wiggling about and fancy footwork to get them clean through the crossdrive panel. Gotta love a dog that throws his whole self into flanking! Now 4 years ago when i went to this trial, Jet got into the double lift and we struggled mightily with the international shed, never managing to get it done. But despite being quite hot and more than a little excited, Zac did a very nice job and we got it done pretty easily. I couldn't seem to get the shed sheep to leave very far though, so i had Zac push the last 2 upfield towards their friends near the setout. This was sticky for me, as i knew the 5 collared ones were wanting to run up over the hill behind the post and to the exhaust area, so i didn't get to push those 2 shed ones quite as far away as i'd have liked, but i thought they were still plenty far enough away. And this is where i made our big mistake. Zac was quite hot by this time, as he was running during the only really sunny part of the day. I'd been sending him to water during the shedding to try to keep him cooler, as well as taking our time as much as possible around the course, but he was still pretty warm and it was affecting his work. He moved the collared sheep handily to the mouth of the pen though, and they were kind of stalled out there. Having about a minute and a half left to go, i should have been more patient and waited it out, and i believe the sheep would have gone in. I saw it happen several times exactly that way in later runs, but didn't have it in my mind when i needed it. Zac and i both put just a hair of pressure on the sheep and one ewe exploded out and ran up the field towards those 2 darned sheep that wouldn't get on upfield and out of sight. Zac got confused when i tried to get him to go after her, and the time spent getting him convinced gave the ewe time to rejoin the 2, and we had to return to the shedding ring. I really think had he not been so hot, that Zac would have caught that ewe easily, as he loves that sort of thing. While he was regathering the 3 sheep upfield, the 4 other collared ones made their way up over the hill and to the exhaust. I had Zac take the 3 to the 4 and spent many long seconds waiting for all 7 to reappear, just hoping and praying nothing awful was happening back there that would result in a DQ after so much nice work. Fortunately, they did come out, finally, and we went back to the shedding ring with very little time left, and time ran out. Final score was 234 out of a possible 340 (60 points gone on the shed & pen). It was a good enough score to hold up for Reserve Champion at the end of the day! It was a great placement against wonderful competition.

So now we're back home and gearing up for the National Finals next month in Middletown, VA, where Zac will run in the Open and Bill in both Nursery and Open. I don't plan to do a lot of training on those two, as i like where they are right now. Mostly i'll just do a good bit of conditioning with them, and also get a good jump on my young dogs. Zac's son Tug is starting to really come along now, after a crash course of sheep work in ND and i'm quite excited about him. And i brought home a new dog from ND as well - Zeke, a half brother to Bill by way of their sire Lew. I'm feeling lucky to have those 2, as they are both eligible for the next 2 years of Nursery competition. They'll be the winter project at Shoofly.

Home

26 days, 5000 miles, 13 states, 2 countries, many sheep, wonderful new friends, new experiences, 2 sheepdog trials, one Open win for Bill and qualification for the Finals, and a Reserve Championship for Zac in the double lift at Kingston, and we're finally home. Happy to see everything is still in place here but sure wishing i had opened my eyes to another cool North Dakota morning and wide open spaces again today!

It'll take awhile but i'll put together pictures and a writeup on the trip soon.

WFAC, Hop Bottom SDT, Finals Benefit SDT

It sure is easy to get behind on this blogging stuff. Life has been crazy busy this last month. Following the trial at Dr Ben's, we had to get ready and host the 3rd Whistle for a Cure SDT. It was a very successful weekend, with nearly $3000 raised for ovarian cancer research at Duke. The weekend after that, i loaded up the pack and we drove to Hop Bottom, PA for the PA State Championship SDT, hosted by Dick and Cheryl Williams. It's a fun little trial and they're always such gracious hosts. I was hoping to pick up some qualifying points on Bill for the Finals, but it wasn't meant to be, as we drew sheep that just didn't want to pen on both runs. Zac ran very well, finishing 10th the first day and 5th the second, out of about 85 dogs. The last weekend in June, we went to a benefit trial for the 2010 Finals at Dr Ben's place. There weren't a lot of dogs running but it was fun. Bill had a mostly really nice run in the first round, but a mess at the top with the setout knocked him out of the placings. Zac was winning the trial when he decided to grip after a successful shed. That was my fault for calling him in at a bad angle but it was disappointing as he had the trial won hands down. The second day, Bill had better luck at the top end and finished 3rd, picking up a couple more points towards the Finals. I don't know if he'll have enough, and we have only one more shot at it, but he's had a good year and will run in the Nursery Finals at least.

On the way to the benefit trial, i stopped and picked up my new camper. It's a little longer than the last one, and has a slide, and i think i'm really going to like it. There's a ton more room. I thought it was a good time as i'm getting ready to go on an extended dog training/trialing trip. I'll be heading to ND on July 17, training dogs for 9 or 10 days, then head to the Upper Midwest SDT in Jordan, MN, then head over to Kingston, Ontario for the big trial there. I'm especially looking forward to the training time, getting Bill and Zac and Jet out on a whole different kind of sheep than they've ever seen, on new fields, and spending some time getting Tug started, as well as seeing lots of new dogs, meeting some new people and getting some new training ideas. It should be quite the adventure!

Circle BR SDT 2010

The Memorial Day weekend trial at Dr Ben and Emily Ousley's in Lawndale, NC is one I've attended nearly every year since i first started competing at sheepdog trials. So that's what, 16 years or so? Time sure has flown but one thing remains the same - the Ousley family are just the nicest people you'd ever want to meet and they bend over backwards to make all of us feel like we're family too.

The trial is set on a field that rises out in front of you in terraces, and the sheep come from the large home flock of katahdins. For the friday afternoon Nursery class, 5 sheep were run. I ran Bill and he did a lovely job, running clean enough that he nearly won the class even though we couldn't get the sheep penned. He ended up 2nd behind Christine and her Rook son Kaige. He continued to run very well in the Open classes over the weekend, though i'd have liked to see him deeper at the top end of his outrun. This field tends to bring the dogs in tight but i thought he was even tighter than i'd have expected. We'll be working on that a bit before the fall trials, though i won't overdo it as i think he'll be one to loosen up naturally as he ages. I was happy with his work the whole weekend, as he was very consistent and had good control of the sheep on every run. He ended up in 10th place in the first round and just out of the placings in the 2nd, and nearly made the double lift based on combined scores. In our second run, we had a ewe that just didn't want to be penned and losing that 10 points knocked us out of it. I also ran Bill in monday Nursery class but decided to just try to train on him a bit rather than run competitively. I wanted to work on his outrun and did stop him to redirect but the sheep broke down the field, which was unfortunate.

Zac ran quite well at the trial as well, though his overenthusiasm did hurt us in the first round. He had a gorgeous go around the course but was overflanking at the shed and we never managed to get it, losing those and the pen points. He did place in the second round, 14th.

I stuck around on monday to watch the Ranch and ProNovice classes and ended up setting sheep for the PN class. It's always fun to see how the dogs look from that end of the field. An extra added treat was getting to see my Gael run for the first time with Kelly. She did great!

It was a great trial with a lot of dogs to run this year, over 70 Open dogs in each round. The sheep seemed fit and mostly pretty even. We'll head back over to the same trial site at the end of June for a trial to benefit the 2010 National Finals.

Bluegrass Wrap up

Sorry to be a slacker in posting about the KY trials but i was having too much fun to spend much time in front of the computer! The Bluegrass was terrific this year and i had a blast. There were lots of new handlers to meet and lots of new dogs to watch, as well as the chance to see what a year of progress had done for others. It's hard to beat the Bluegrass for a great time spent away from the handler's post. I know i came home excited and motivated about the dogs.

I was mostly pretty thrilled with how my dogs ran. Because i was limited to one dog in the Open by virtue of the draw, Bill was only running in the Nursery. He was a bit off his game on his first run, and was startled at the top end of the field as he picked his sheep up, by the set out person's big yellow boots, of all things (!). It was kind of funny really but not exactly how i planned our BG week to start. His fetch was very offline but the rest of the run was nearly perfect and he ended up about halfway down the pack. He was back to form on his second run. I gave him a very hard down at the top to get him to settle back a bit and it paid off, as the run was very good and he finished 2nd by one point. For the 3rd round of Nursery, the sheep come over from the Open field and things get interesting, as the young dogs meet the wily Texas lambs. The first 2 days were run on nice yearling wool sheep but they are pretty dogged. The Texas lambs have been worked in groups of 3 exactly one time in their lives, on the Open field. Bill's first run on these sheep was less than stellar as he ran right into them after lifting. We were lucky to not be DQed! He got more comfortable and was really enjoying them by the end of the run though, and ended up about 1/4 of the way down in the final placings. On to the final Nursery run, and Bill was really terrific. I went out with a different plan, and dropped him at the top just a hair short of balance so i could see him when he came forward, and hopefully keep him from rushing into the sheep. It worked like a charm and the whole run was beautiful. We ended up tied for first and won the run off, for a 1st place finish. I was really pleased and proud of my young guy for a great week. It was a bit like last year in the Nursery, where he got a bit better each time out and ended up winning the final day as well. It's nice to measure against such a large Nursery class, with most of the contenders for this years Finals attending, as well.

Jet was up in the Open class early on Thursday, a very good time to run as it's cool and the sheep are usually a little bit more agreeable. Unfortunately, we ended up wasting the good draw. I'd planned for weeks to send Jet to the right, in hopes she'd get deep enough that even with her habitual stopping short, that she could get a decent lift. But as i watched run after run on Wednesday end as the sheep broke back to the left, i decided to try sending her left instead. Stopping short would really leave her at the correct lift point, and we'd save tons of time that she'd have used easing over from the right side after pulling up. I knew it was risky but decided to try it anyway. Unfortunately Jet pulled up in front of the sheep, not even getting around them, and they broke back anyway. I kicked myself pretty good in hindsight, thinking i should have stuck with my plan to send right, as i'm sure she'd have gotten the sheep down the field but that's how it goes sometimes.

I decided to sub Zac in for the second Open run rather than send Jet out again. He's been working pretty strong and i thought the sheep would be better in the second round, and he would be the better choice. We were up early Saturday morning, when the sheep were good again. I was actually feeling pretty nervous, which is very unusual for me, i just don't get nervous at trialing much at all. But i was this time, i think because Zac didn't do well last year, having a lot of trouble getting the sheep down the field. But he's older and stronger now, and was running in a much better time slot, and he didn't have any trouble at all lifting. I let him get them well started, not worrying too much about them getting off line, as i wanted the draw back to the set out to fade before i messed with him much. We got them back in the vicinity of the fetch panels easily enough but i took him off the pressure on the sheep right at the panel and they slipped around. First leg of the drive was nice but i did the same thing at the panel, drew some pressure off the sheep and they slipped around (that was my nerves working on me, i think). Crossdrive was really nice, right straight through the panels (my nemesis in years past, that darned crossdrive panel, and it's the only one i hit). Return leg was very good, on into the shedding ring. Now i've had lots of trouble shedding at the Bluegrass in the past, but for some reason my nerves were gone (maybe because i'd given away so many points at the panels) and i was feeling pretty confident. I got it set up and called Zac in on one heck of a shed, tiny little gap, and he blew in like gangbusters. It was truly pretty darned spectacular. After it was called, the lamb tried to go over Zac and he went straight up in the air stopping it. Unfortunately, it then broke up the field and when he couldn't catch it in front (probably because i was yelling at him just enough to slow him down a hair), he grabbed it by the shoulder and we got the dreaded "thank you" for a DQ. All in all though, i was thrilled with Zac. He really ran well, listening to me and handling the sheep, and it was so much fun being out there with him. I'd have sure liked another crack at the sheep to handle our way through the run better, that's for sure.

It was a great trip to KY and i can't wait to go back next year!
(photos by Mindy Bower)

Chinquapinwood SDT Wrap up

The 2010 Chinquapinwood trial was very nice. The trial is hosted by Mike and Laura Hanley at their beautiful farm near Lexington KY. It's a really gorgeous farm with manicured green grass, classic Ky horse fencing, and every detail is attended to all weekend, including a fabulous handlers dinner on Saturday evening.

I was very pleased with all 3 Open dogs this weekend. I spent the time between Shaker Village and this trial at the farm of Vergil and Anne Marie Holland, and was able to get a couple of lessons in with Vergil, and it certainly paid off in the performances of Zac and Bill. Both ran extremely well. Zac ended up placing in the first round and i was surprised neither placed in the second as they ran very clean. The drive panels are really tough to hit on this field and there are tons of misses but we hit them both on every run. Sheds were tight for us as several were made with only 1 or 2 seconds left on the clock. All in all, it was a very enjoyable weekend though i was disappointed to not pick up some qualifying points towards the Finals for Jet and Bill.